Circle This Day on the Calendar, 2010 ...

It's been the better part of a year since I offered praise of one of Stewart Doreen's blog posts. So, I figure it's safe to offer one now, without raising too many eyebrows, or too many inquiries about my health.

First things first ... read his latest post on his Newsroom Stew weblog ... take your time ... I'll wait.

Now, I don't know what your response/comment to his post might be ... mine? ... "Amen, brother!"

Everybody's a Lobo - Woof, Woof ... WHAT? ...

AAAGGGHHH! ... Quincy Pondexter scored 18 points, Isaiah Thomas added 15 and Washington extended its incredible late-season roll all the way to the regional semifinals with an 82-64 second-round victory over the University of New Mexico Saturday.

For me, March Madness has given way to March Sadness .. Sob ...

A New - and Unsettling - Turn On an Old Con ...

Dear Friend, I am writing to you as a reliable and trustworthy person who has received many, MANY requests to secure million-of-dollars in found money, at the e-mail request of someone in a foreign land, and unusual circumstances.

I know I have, and I figured I'd heard just about every story in the book. But this latest has added a whole new page to that book. Normally, they're easily ignored and sent straight to the virtual trash can. THIS ONE, caught my attention, though ... due, perhaps, to my father being a career US Marine.

"I am Ossy David of the US Marine Force on Monitoring and Peace –keeping mission in Baghdad-Iraq," this latest e-mail begins. "I am from Gretna , I got your contact from the US chamber of commerce online and I am contacting you after heart feelings of believe that you will not betray me."

Yeah, sure ...

"On the 26th day of May 2009, we were alerted on the sudden presence of some Terrorists camping in a suburb not too far from Kabala here in Iraq . After Immediate intervention, we captured three (3) of the Terrorists, twenty-six (26) were killed leaving seven (7) injured."

Then, the e-mail from 'Ossy' takes an unsettling turn.

"In the process of torture they confessed being rebels for the late Aymanal Zawahiri and took us to a cave in Kabala which served as their camp. At their camp we recovered several guns, bombs and other Ammunition's including some boxes, one filled with hard drugs and the other one to my amazement one of box contained cash of US$2Million which I concealed immediately."
(emphasis added)

Finally, we get around to the money, and how I can help my good, virtual friend, Ossy.

"I am in keen need of a 'Reliable and Trustworthy' person who would secure and protect this box containing the US Dollars for me up Until my assignment elapses here in Iraq."

"I assure and promise to give you 10% of this fund, however feel free to negotiate what you wish to have as your percentage in this business. Please assure me of your keeping this top most secret to protect my job with the US Marines."

"I await your reply in great anticipation."

Dear Ossy, thank you for your letter, and for all that you had to say about my country, it's armed forces, and their conduct over the years while serving in the Iraq War. I would welcome an opportunity to meet with you sometime. And though I realize such an actual meeting is impossible, I still like to imagine how it might turn out. I regret that my father could not be there, to offer up a rebuttal to your e-mail, coming as it does from a 'fellow Marine. And though I am but a small fraction of my old man, I would nonetheless setp-up and do what I can, in his memory and in memory of many, many old Marines in whose company I grew up.

Semper Fi

Upward Photo Album, #4 ...

Upward Basketball & Cheerleading recently wrapped-up its Spring 2010 season here, in the Tall City. Here are some moments from that season, in the last of four batches of photos. Trying to take these photos gave me a TREMENDOUS appreciation for the work done by professional sports photographers who regularly deliver resiults far better than I can manage.







Upward introduces children to Jesus Christ by creating opportunities to serve through sports. Upward is a fun, reliable, passionate and encouraging sports experience for boys and girls, in K5 through sixth grade. Upward provides first class, organized and detailed sports programming. Unique aspects of Upward include an evaluation system that promotes equal and competitive teams as well as a substitution system which allows for equal playing time for all participants.Through Upward, children are exposed to quality coaching and sport development. Upward emphasizes character and integrity instead of a “win at all costs” mentality associated with today’s sports world.

And, NO, you don't have to be a member of a church in order to participate!

There are all kinds of ways you can help the Upward program in your community ... all kinds of ways you can become a West Texas Missioner. You can be a coach, or an assistant, a referee or a timekeeper. You may also choose to present a brief devotional to the audience during the halftimes, while the teams are resting and getting ready for the next round of play. Your focus can be current events, a piece of Scripture from the Bible, or sports. You can compose your own, or work from guidelines that participating churches will provide you. You can also help by signing-up your child, then heading to the game and cheering for everyone on the floor!

In Midland, there are programs at First Baptist Church and First Presbyterian Church. In Odessa, there are programs at First Baptist Church, Second Baptist Church and First Church of the Nazarene. And in Lamesa, there is a program at First Baptist Church.

Upward Photo Album, #3 ...

Upward Basketball & Cheerleading recently wrapped-up its Spring 2010 season here, in the Tall City. Here are some moments from that season, in the third of four batches of photos. Trying to take these photos gave me a TREMENDOUS appreciation for the work done by professional sports photographers who regularly deliver resiults far better than I can manage.







Upward introduces children to Jesus Christ by creating opportunities to serve through sports. Upward is a fun, reliable, passionate and encouraging sports experience for boys and girls, in K5 through sixth grade. Upward provides first class, organized and detailed sports programming. Unique aspects of Upward include an evaluation system that promotes equal and competitive teams as well as a substitution system which allows for equal playing time for all participants.Through Upward, children are exposed to quality coaching and sport development. Upward emphasizes character and integrity instead of a “win at all costs” mentality associated with today’s sports world.

And, NO, you don't have to be a member of a church in order to participate!

There are all kinds of ways you can help the Upward program in your community ... all kinds of ways you can become a West Texas Missioner. You can be a coach, or an assistant, a referee or a timekeeper. You may also choose to present a brief devotional to the audience during the halftimes, while the teams are resting and getting ready for the next round of play. Your focus can be current events, a piece of Scripture from the Bible, or sports. You can compose your own, or work from guidelines that participating churches will provide you.

You can also help by signing-up your child, then heading to the game and cheering for everyone on the floor!

In Midland, there are programs at First Baptist Church and First Presbyterian Church. In Odessa, there are programs at First Baptist Church, Second Baptist Church and First Church of the Nazarene. And in Lamesa, there is a program at First Baptist Church.

Upward Photo Album, #2 ...

Upward Basketball & Cheerleading recently wrapped-up its Spring 2010 season here, in the Tall City. Here are some moments from that season, in the second of four batches of photos. Trying to take these photos gave me a TREMENDOUS appreciation for the work done by professional sports photographers who regularly deliver resiults far better than I can manage.







Upward introduces children to Jesus Christ by creating opportunities to serve through sports. Upward is a fun, reliable, passionate and encouraging sports experience for boys and girls, in K5 through sixth grade. Upward provides first class, organized and detailed sports programming. Unique aspects of Upward include an evaluation system that promotes equal and competitive teams as well as a substitution system which allows for equal playing time for all participants.Through Upward, children are exposed to quality coaching and sport development. Upward emphasizes character and integrity instead of a “win at all costs” mentality associated with today’s sports world.

And, NO, you don't have to be a member of a church in order to participate!

There are all kinds of ways you can help the Upward program in your community ... all kinds of ways you can become a West Texas Missioner. You can be a coach, or an assistant, a referee or a timekeeper. You may also choose to present a brief devotional to the audience during the halftimes, while the teams are resting and getting ready for the next round of play. Your focus can be current events, a piece of Scripture from the Bible, or sports. You can compose your own, or work from guidelines that participating churches will provide you.

You can also help by signing-up your child, then heading to the game and cheering for everyone on the floor!

In Midland, there are programs at First Baptist Church and First Presbyterian Church. In Odessa, there are programs at First Baptist Church, Second Baptist Church and First Church of the Nazarene. And in Lamesa, there is a program at First Baptist Church.

Upward Photo Album, #1 ...

Upward Basketball & Cheerleading recently wrapped-up its Spring 2010 season here, in the Tall City. Here are some moments from that season, in the first of four batches of photos. Trying to take these photos gave me a TREMENDOUS appreciation for the work done by professional sports photographers who regularly deliver resiults far better than I can manage.







Upward introduces children to Jesus Christ by creating opportunities to serve through sports. Upward is a fun, reliable, passionate and encouraging sports experience for boys and girls, in K5 through sixth grade. Upward provides first class, organized and detailed sports programming. Unique aspects of Upward include an evaluation system that promotes equal and competitive teams as well as a substitution system which allows for equal playing time for all participants.Through Upward, children are exposed to quality coaching and sport development. Upward emphasizes character and integrity instead of a “win at all costs” mentality associated with today’s sports world.

And, NO, you don't have to be a member of a church in order to participate!

There are all kinds of ways you can help the Upward program in your community ... all kinds of ways you can become a West Texas Missioner. You can be a coach, or an assistant, a referee or a timekeeper. You may also choose to present a brief devotional to the audience during the halftimes, while the teams are resting and getting ready for the next round of play. Your focus can be current events, a piece of Scripture from the Bible, or sports. You can compose your own, or work from guidelines that participating churches will provide you. You can also help by signing-up your child, then heading to the game and cheering for everyone on the floor!

In Midland, there are programs at First Baptist Church and First Presbyterian Church. In Odessa, there are programs at First Baptist Church, Second Baptist Church and First Church of the Nazarene. And in Lamesa, there is a program at First Baptist Church.

Spring Has Sprung, d' Grass Has Riz ...

... I wonder where d' flowers iz ...


Found some this week, courtesy of the Bradford Pear (Pyrus calleryana) trees that are blooming all around the Tall City, including the Midland College campus where I work. I'll be posting some additional photos, later today, on the college's Facebook page.

Visiting Worlds Next-Door to Our Own ...

This past weekend, I had a chance to catch two documentaries from the same producer, each offering an up-close and insightful look into worlds located not very far from your doorstep.

Both of them aired on IFC (Independent Film Channel, 306 on Suddenlink Cable), and both were produced by the aptly-named SeeThink Films. I recommend them both ... though I can't guarantee that they'll provoke the same response in you that they have with me, or with other viewers.

One is Darkon, an award-winning (at SXSW, in Austin, among others) documentary film that follows the real-life adventures of the Darkon Wargaming Club Maryland, a group of fantasy live-action role-playing gamers.



The other is New World Order, a documentary film that explores activists committed to vigorously opposing what they perceive to be an emerging bureaucratic collectivist one-world government.



An initial response might be a chuckle, and a remark about somebody being a bubble-off-center, or a sandwich-short-of-a-picnic. But, as I remind my visitors in the header graphic for this blog, "we are more alike than we know, or care to admit." No, I don't go around painting myself blue and running around in the woods with a broadsword. But I was a D&D enthusiast in college, and medieval studies in literature and music continue to interest me. And while I didn't make the transition into Society for Creative Anachronism, I DID serve a number of years in Company A, 1st US Infantry (memorial) at Historic Fort Stockton, wearing the uniform and firing the weapons of a 19th-century American infantryman.

I'm For Keeping Grant ... But I AM a Dang Yankee, After All ...

In this post on the Los Angeles Times' DC Now blog, Johanna Neuman writes, "Rep. Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina wants to sub Reagan on the nation's $50 bill for President Ulysses S. Grant, a union general during the Civil War who led the North to victory and later became the nation's 18th POTUS. Grant, a champion for African Americans, died broke, so he probably appreciates the money. But if McHenry has his way, Grant will be retired to the dustbin of history."
Me? I'm all for keeping Grant on the $50 bill ... but I AM a dang Yankee, after all, and the descendant of men who served under Grant's ultimate command during the Civil War. I'll be the first to acknowledge there are aspects of Grant's administration that were less-than-stellar ... but, then, I'd say the same thing for many of those who have served in our nation's highest elected office.

If we have to place Reagan on a piece of currency, let's put him on the $1 coin. Maybe he'll succeed in capturing our interest, and encouraging our use of that coin far more than Sacagawea and Susan B. Anthony have managed.

Attaboy, Ronnie! ... Again ...

Congratulations to Ronnie Marley, editor of newswest9.com, this year's #1 station website in Division IV of the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters ... for the second year running!

It was Ronnie who took over as web editor at KWES when I left ... almost three years ago, now. And he has done a smashing job! All I ever managed at TAPB (as editor of newswest9.com and, before that, as editor of mywesttexas.com) was a couple of 2nd-place finishes, and a couple of honorable mentions.

Attaboy, Ronnie ... again!

CLICK HERE for a list of all of the winners in all of the categories (scroll down to "Division 4"). Looks like KOSA won the medal count this year ... kudos to Jose Gaona and everyone at CBS7.

The Texas Associated Press Broadcasters (TAPB) is "a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the gathering and reporting of news by radio and television, and to the continued cooperative sharing of news material gathered by individual members through The Associated Press. The organization is further dedicated to seeking the improvement of professional standards in radio and TV news reporting and journalism in general."

I REALLY Liked This One ...

Spent some time at Christensen Stadium, trying out a new lens while watching the MC Chaparrals play the Western Texas College Westerners in a baseball double-header. Took a lot of shots ... some good, some not-so-good, some pretty bad.
Here's one that I REALLY liked ...

Life Imitates Art, or Vice-Versa ...

It's something I had only seen on television, or in the movies ... until the other day, in the Chili's parking lot, north of the loop, in Midland.

Yeeeee-haw!

Buon Compleanno! ...

... to il Prete Rosso Antonio Lucio Vivaldi - composer, priest and virtuoso violinist - born on this day in 1678. Dismissed by some, but loved by many more, Vivaldi - in his life and his music - has known both acclaim and obscurity over the centuries. At this time, he is very much IN and works such as The Four Seasons have become staples of classical music performance and enjoyment over the past century.

Here's "Winter" from The Four Seasons, performed by I Musici in Vivaldi's hometown of Venice, Italy.

The Envelope, Please ...

Just in time for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, comes "Top ten signs your film is not going to win an Oscar", posted by Bob Sullivan at When Falls the Coliseum. My favorite reason is #3.

Lots of Oscar-related 'stuff' on the airwaves ... but my favorite remains the 31 Days of Oscar, which concluded tonight on Turner Classic Movies, a month-long broadcast of Academy Award-winning films - everything from Best Song or Best Editing, to Best Actor/Actress, Best Director and Best Film.

Speaking of 'Best Film,' one of TCM's broadcasts earlier this week was Cecil B. Demille's The Greatest Show on Earth, 1952's Best Film. It's a good movie ... but is it THAT good? The Wikipedia entry for the film notes that critics have labeled GSOE as perhaps the Worst Picture to have ever won the Best Picture award, beating out High Noon, Singin' in the Rain and The Quiet Man. Me? I'd have selected any one of those three ahead of GSOE ... but my ballot from the Academy keeps getting lost in the mail, or something.

A Yankee's Toast to Texas ...

“To Texas . . .

Joyous and sparkling,

Evergreen when it rains, enduring in drought,

Timeless, endless in boundaries, exciting,

Home to the adventurous of yesterday and today,

With shrines from the past, and space
and spirit for the future.

To Texas.

Everlasting in the hearts of your people!”

It was just over ten years ago when, as editor of the Fort Stockton Pioneer, I was handed a letter from one of our readers, for publication in the next issue ... a letter admonishing our paper for not devoting adequate space to Texas Independence Day. She may have been DRT (I honestly don't remember for certain), but she was certainly something of a Lone Star zealot ... an impression of mine that was reinforced by her comment as she handed me the letter .....

"You probably won't realize the importance of this, not being from around here."

Well, actually - I realized later, after I'd had time to think about it - I do, and so do a lot of dang Yankees from back east, such as myself. True, I am someone who - to borrow the old saying - wasn't born in Texas, but got here as fast as I could. But the same could be said for such Lone Star luminaries as Stephen Austin, William Travis, Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Mirabeau Lamar and Sam Houston.

DON'T GET ME WRONG ... I do NOT equate myself with them. But it doesn't hurt to remember that, with the exception of Juan Seguin and his company of Tejanos, there wasn't a 'native Texan' to be found on the Texas side of the revolution.

The Keystone Stater in me would like to point out that there were an estimated 13 Pennsylvanians defending the walls of the Alamo, and offering up their lives for the revolution and the ideals it represented. And well they should. Because it was something that had been important to them, their parents and their grandparents for more than half-a-century.

Maybe that's what bugged me about the woman's remark ... the fact that, 'not being from around here,' I would be unable to understand what was being decided in the Texas revolution. To my mind, it was something that all free-thinking people know ..... or should know.

You see, it wasn't just men that came to Texas ..... the ideals adopted at Washington on the Brazos had been conceived many years before, in Philadelphia ..... and the determination to defend those ideals in Goliad and Gonzales, San Antonio and San Jacinto, had been inspired - again, many years before - by what took place at Bunker Hill and Valley Forge, Lexington, Concord and Cowpens.

And let's not forget the the material needed to pursue that defense came from all over the United States, from the decision by Alabama to strip its state arsenal of muskets and send them west, to the Twin Sisters - a pair of canons donated by the 'People of Cincinnati, Ohio' and arriving just in time to blast a hole in the Mexicans' makeshift breastworks at San Jacinto.

And so, I lift my glass, and I will join the toast heard statewide today ..... but mine will be a private affair ..... and while I may follow closely the words printed at the top of this post, I will deviate on one point, and replace the word 'Texas' with 'America' ..... God Bless It!

Where MD Goes, I Follow ...

MD Pizza Factory - a uniquely-American success story, and one of my favorite pizzerias in the Tall City - has moved to the north side of town ... and I'm heading north with it.

"So, there's this guy from China," I wrote in this post, about a year-and-a-half ago, "comes to America - ends up in West Texas, of all places. So what does he do? Opens up a pizzeria ... and does such a good job, he gets a write-up in a nationally-known magazine."
Now Matt and Diana have moved to a new location at 4706 N. Midkiff, Suite 13 (they're in that line of shops right on the northeast corner of Midkiff Road and Loop 250). They're open for lunch, Mondays - Fridays, 11:00 am - 2:00 pm; and for dinner, Mondays - Sundays, 4:00 - 9:30 pm.

Been there, done that, LOVED it ... and I STRONGLY recommend you head that way, yourself.